to think that Nicky Morgan should check if there ARE libraries before telling kids to join them?

[TalkinPeace]

Nicky Morgan wants all kids to join their Local Library
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33980452

but does not seem to notice that Libraries are closing all over the country
and the number of actual books some have in stock has halved over the last 5 years.

Maybe if MPs had shorter summer holidays, their brains would get less addled during the long break.

Mrs Morgan said: "No matter where they live or what their background, every single child in this country deserves the opportunity to read, to read widely, and to read well - it's a simple matter of social justice.'

I would agree totally, and I would have thought so would labour-leaning folk, which is why I was so stunned that a Labour council would close so many libraries in disadvantaged areas.

This made me laugh too. Yes, no librarians, and many staff are volunteers - it is appalling what they're asking volunteers to do nowadays - and in fact few libraries. Completely agree with the idea though, of course we want kids to be literate... so possibly... fund them to be reopened?? Build bigger and better ones, since they provably attract people? With decent staffing and stock?

Silly me. What an idea.

howabout
Also not many seem aware that you can do on-line borrowing through your local library.
But if the library is not open when you are able to collect the book you have reserved, what is the point.

DH is currently looking up books to purchase through Abe Books
which is fine but you cannot judge a book by a picture of its cover

NOTHING beats real, paper books.

And try doing any sort of independent research without having several books from different eras open on the table at once - a tad tricky on a kindle.

Our local Library had 18 stacks when we moved here 20 years ago.
Now there are lots of arm chairs and 7 stacks.

You need to know what to order in order to order.

DC may not like what you decide to reserve,they need plenty of good quality decent condition books in front of them that they can sort through in order to choose what suits them. Children read more when they read what they enjoy and what suits them,kids differ.

Also re ordering the more astute Hoover up the best books. I do. I research and go in with a massive list( often new publications) before the hols. They are sent from all over the county.We then have those books for however long we choose to renew. They are then out of action. The more educated and involved parents are more likely to do this leaving those very kids who need more books with less and less able to get their hands on the good ones. Some of the books I order from my nice leafy town are sent from the libraries in less affluent areas.

We are encouraged to order as our library holds less and rarely has new stock. Our county spent it's millions on the city library down the road which has the latest everything.

Talk what I mean is you order an online book to read on your laptop / ipad etc for the lending period. You don't need to go to the library and you have access to the whole network not just local stock.

Agree with you on needing real books to do proper research though.

howabout
That depends on the book being available in electronic form.
No funding for such round here.
Not likely to include the sort of books our family borrows - non fiction household.
How are these books scanned? By who?
Also a tad tricky to refer to several pages at once in several books at once

sorry but paper every time

Yanbu. Such a shame about the lack of funding for local libraries , I have so many fond memories of the books I discovered and loved as. Chikd through my local libraries. Recently took dds there and they were both dissapointed that there were NO: Enid Blyton, Jaqueline Wilson or J K Rowling books - not even one. The shelves are virtually bare every time

Sorry weird typos !!

My local library is now a patch of scrubby wasteland

I almost do not need our local library. they keep selling off books and I keep buying them. we have our own library now.

Our local library only opens during M-F 9-4 and Saturday morning 9-12. It doesn't suit many people who work (and we usually do our sport on Saturday morning, so no time then). It caters mostly for older residents and stay at home parents.

My DH used to question the point of libraries, and say children should all be given a kindle.

Then we moved to an area with a fantastic, well funded library, and he is a convert. Our library is a centre of community life, as well as stocking books, dvds, computer games. There are children's activities most days, groups for adults (various reading groups, language groups, social groups), free classes (computers, citizen tests), community police drop ins, theatre plays, internet access, a cafe, evening social events.... in the winter when it was cold and rainy it was great to have a warm building to spend your day. The events and atmosphere definitely encourage children to find books interesting, the local schools all visit once a week, and through the summer holidays children are doing a 'reading challenge', which I can't imagine them doing off their own back with a kindle.

It's so sad to hear about all the libraries being cut back elsewhere.

I too may not have been where I am today without my local library. I had quite an unhappy home life and reading was a great escape, and I learnt that other ways of relating to people were normal.

Also.... in my sleep deprived state I read the thread title as Nicki Minaj is encouraging children to join libraries, for the whole first page I thought you were all being very mean to her, because how would she know they had closed?!

^^Yes, this is the thing. When they're actually funded properly to do the job they want to do and know they can do, they attract people in from all over. Though their main function which you only implied is 'free access to quality information for all', including those that can't afford it elsewhere and don't know how to tell good info from bad. It's both the 'information' and the 'for all' that's important.

"I too may not have been where I am today without my local library." I can relate to that too. It's been said that libraries pick up those that schools miss. And they are there for adults of all stripes too.

It's more than sad that libraries are dying, it's part of the movement against free speech, education, information, equality and democracy imo.

Delighted so many people are in favour of libraries staying open; perhaps they will be available to support them in more practical ways than simply writing emails.

I belong to a library support group; when the local library was threatened with closure a few years ago hundreds of people signed petitions and campaigned vigorously to keep it open. Now we have 5 people left on the committee who organise and run all fund raising events in the library; most of the money raised goes to provide materials for children's activities, provided several times a week and throughout the holidays.

Not a single parent, repeat a single parent, has ever offered to help in any way, even in clearing up; many cavil at paying for coffee and cakes (fund-raising) but expect all activities to be provided free of charge.

If you wish the libraries to stay open you have to be prepared to help in practical ways.

Whatever your views on the importance or not of libraries, it's a fact that local authorities have a legal duty to run a comprehensive service, and a fact that they are not doing so.

It is truly worrying that our education secretary is so out of touch that she believes that all children have access to a library. Even some schools don't have them. It's an oft-quoted fact that prisons must by law have a library, but schools don't!

Goblin
If you wish the libraries to stay open you have to be prepared to help in practical ways.
I pay my council tax.
My council has a legal obligation to provide a Library Service.

I also use the library a LOT (according to our family borrower records we take out around 1000 books a year between us)

"If you wish the libraries to stay open you have to be prepared to help in practical ways."

Voluntarily I suppose you mean. Doing the jobs that should be paid, that were paid just a few years ago. Desperately trying to make up for central government's sick attitude, and thereby encouraging it . There's a lot of things about this push to make public services volunteer-based which I'm unhappy with. How do you ensure the quality? Who can really take responsibility for them? Can we really rebuild an economy on voluntary work? Is it right or in any way good for society that some people can afford to give their labour for free while others are struggling to pay bills in paid work?

Perhaps being an MP should be voluntary. Or a prime minister.

"It's more than sad that libraries are dying, it's part of the movement against free speech, education, information, equality and democracy imo."

This.

I've no idea why nicky Morgan picked 8 years old as the age to go for? Previous auto-enrolment pilot schemes worked with reception age, I think?
It's no good her realising now that libraries are a good thing unless she can do something about the library closures that are so widespread now.

Volunteer run libraries, which are not part of the local authority library service do not, I was told, pay a fee to authors, so such a service would not be in their interests.

This point was raised during the meetings to save Sunderland's libraries when a group of women were organising themselves to take over one of the threatened libraries as a volunteer library service. It didn't go ahead as it happened though.

I am yet to see our local library actually open...

We have a lovely library with CDs, DVDs, BUT - a coffee machine and noisy discussion groups, annoying students who are studying, even with headsets on! Not sure you really need that but maybe they need the money from the coffee machine to finance the library?!

When my kids were babies/toddlers, they ran reading time [think they still do] but it was held in a room with the door shut so we didn't disturb the other users. I do hold with the traditional quietness of a library - a place to escape from the noisy bustle of the shopping centre outside! Call me old-fashioned!

Southampton City Libraries are having a week long stale of loads of their stock because they have closed so many libraries.

The books will be bought by people who can afford to buy lots of books

Those who cannot afford lots of books will lose access to books for ever.

One third of households own no books : I've visited several, as a book fanatic I find it scary.
But the children in those houses used to be able to get books for free from the Library.
Not any more.